Section 1: Overview

Start with where the rules actually come from. In Mississippi, who may sit on an HOA board is set by the association’s own governing documents and by the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act — not by a property statute. The state’s condominium law is thin, it says nothing about who is eligible to serve as a director, and it does not reach homeowners associations. There is no dedicated HOA statute at all. So Mississippi imposes no statutory certification, no term limit, and no automatic disqualification.¹

Consider the condominium law itself. The Mississippi Condominium Law (Miss. Code Ann. § 89-9-1 et seq.) governs how condominiums are created, declared, assessed, and transferred. By its own terms, it does not apply to homeowners associations.² A non-condominium HOA looks instead to three things: its recorded covenants, the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act (Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-101 et seq.) if it incorporated as a nonprofit, and the common law.³

That puts Mississippi well apart from heavy-touch states such as Florida and California. Those states make directors certify, take education, and step down after term limits, and they disqualify delinquent owners and certain felons outright.⁴ The sections that follow trace where Mississippi’s qualification rules come from, what they require, and how recent legislation and court activity bear on them.

Section 2: Where director qualifications come from

2A. The Condominium Law and the absence of an HOA statute

The Mississippi Condominium Law dates to 1964 (Laws, 1964, ch. 270) and sits in the 1972 Code at Miss. Code Ann. § 89-9-1 et seq. It is a traditional, thin condominium statute.⁵ It defines a condominium and its common areas, it authorizes declarations of restrictions, it handles assessments and the assessment lien — recorded with the chancery clerk under § 89-9-21 — and it governs conveyances and partition.⁶ What it does not do is say who may serve as a director of the association that runs a condominium. It sets no eligibility rule, no education requirement, and no disqualification. And by its own terms, as practitioner summaries confirm, it does not reach homeowners associations.²

For non-condominium HOAs, Mississippi has written no separate statute. There is no Mississippi version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and no planned-community act. So a non-condominium HOA answers to three layers: its recorded covenants — the declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions — the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act if the association incorporated as a nonprofit, which most do, and the common law.³ None of those layers requires a director to certify or train, caps a director’s tenure, or automatically disqualifies an owner who is behind on dues or who has a criminal record. Where the documents go silent, the Nonprofit Corporation Act’s default rules step in.

Footnotes

1. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-233 (Qualifications for directors) and § 79-11-101 et seq. (Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act), as brought forward verbatim by Mississippi Legislature, HB 1554 (2025 Reg. Sess.) ↩
2. Homeowners Protection Bureau, LLC, “Mississippi HOA Laws, Regulations & Resources” (Miss. Code Ann. § 89-9-1 et seq. (1972) governs condominium formation, management, powers, and operation; “The law does not apply to homeowners’ associations”) ↩
3. HOA Management, “Mississippi HOA Laws” (most Mississippi HOAs are nonprofit corporations governed by the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 79, Chapter 11, because there is no HOA-specific statute) ↩
4. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d) (2024) (certification and education, eight-year term limit, and disqualification of delinquent owners and certain felons) ↩
5. Miss. Code Ann. § 89-9-1 (citation of chapter as the “Mississippi Condominium Law”; “Codes, 1942, § 896-01; Laws, 1964, ch. 270, § 1”) ↩
6. Miss. Code Ann. § 89-9-21 (liability of owner for assessment; lien on assessed condominium; recording, priority, and enforcement) ↩
7. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-101 (“Section 79-11-101 et seq. shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act.’”), as brought forward by HB 1554 (2025 Reg. Sess.) ↩
8. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-233 (“All directors must be individuals. The articles or bylaws may prescribe other qualifications for directors.”) ↩
9. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-235 (number of directors specified in or fixed in accordance with the articles or bylaws; three-director minimum for post-2012 soliciting charitable organizations) ↩
10. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-239 (terms must be specified in the articles or bylaws; may not exceed five years except for designated or appointed directors; default one-year term; directors may be elected for successive terms) ↩
11. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-245 (removal of directors by members and by the board) ↩
12. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-131 (petition to chancery court for an alternative method of calling or conducting a meeting of members, delegates, or directors), as brought forward by HB 1554 (2025 Reg. Sess.) ↩
13. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-145 (incorporators or board shall adopt bylaws; bylaws may contain any provision for managing the corporation not inconsistent with law or the articles) ↩
14. State of Mississippi Judiciary, “Chancery Courts” (jurisdiction over equity and real-property matters; land records filed in Chancery Court) ↩
15. State of Mississippi Judiciary, “About the Courts” (Circuit Courts as the courts of law jurisdiction; two-tier appellate system) ↩
16. State of Mississippi Judiciary, “About the Courts” (Supreme Court is the court of last resort; Court of Appeals hears cases assigned by the Supreme Court) ↩
17. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)2 (2024) (in a residential condominium association of more than 10 units, co-owners of a unit may not serve on the board at the same time absent exceptions) ↩
18. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-245(1)–(3), (8)–(9) (members may remove directors they elected; removal effective if votes cast to remove would be sufficient to elect; board removal of a board-elected director by two-thirds vote; removal for missed meetings by majority of directors then in office) ↩
19. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-249 (chancery court removal of a director on petition of the corporation or members holding at least ten percent of the voting power for fraudulent or dishonest conduct or gross abuse of authority; court may bar future service) ↩
20. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-269 (conflict-of-interest transaction not voidable solely because of the director’s interest if disclosed and approved by disinterested directors or members, or fair to the corporation) ↩
21. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-241 (staggering terms of directors), Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act section index ↩
22. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)4.b (2024) (within 90 days, each director must submit a written certification and a certificate of completing an approved educational curriculum at least four hours long; failure results in suspension until compliance) ↩
23. Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-267(1)–(2) (“A director shall discharge his duties as a director… in accordance with his good faith belief that he is acting in the best interests of the corporation.”; reliance on officers, counsel, accountants, and committees), as brought forward by HB 1554 (2025 Reg. Sess.) ↩
24. Mississippi Legislature, HB 1554 (2025 Reg. Sess.), by Rep. Bounds, referred to Business and Commerce (bring-forward of the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
25. Buena Vista Lakes Maintenance Ass’n, Inc. v. Jones, No. 2022-CA-01153-COA (Miss. Ct. App.) (reversing chancery court on interpretation of association bylaws and the two-thirds voting threshold for a member action) ↩
26. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)2 (2024) (“A board member may not serve more than 8 consecutive years unless approved by an affirmative vote of unit owners representing two-thirds of all votes cast in the election”; disqualification of delinquent owners and certain felons) ↩
27. FinCEN, Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement Revision and Deadline Extension, interim final rule, 90 Fed. Reg. 13697 (Mar. 26, 2025) (domestic entities, including incorporated associations, exempt from BOI filing); see also H.R. 425, Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, 119th Cong. (pending repeal of the Corporate Transparency Act) ↩